African
American Lives.
New York: Thirteen/WNET New York
and Kunhardt Productions, 2006. $34.95, 240 min. DVD. TEL: 212-560-1313 •
FAX: 212-560-1314. Website:-www.thirteen.org
Hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., W.E.B. DuBois professor of humanities and
chair of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, this
four-part PBS series takes Alex Haley’s Roots saga to a whole new level
through moving stories of personal discovery.
Using genealogy, oral history, family stories, and DNA analysis to trace lineage
through American history and back to Africa, the series provides a life-changing
journey for a diverse group of highly accomplished African Americans: neurosurgeon
Dr. Ben Carson, actress Whoopi Goldberg, minister Bishop T.D. Jakes, astronaut
Mae Jemison, musician/entrepreneur Quincy Jones, sociologist Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot,
actor/comedian Chris Tucker, and television talk-show host Oprah Winfrey.
The series works to restore the participants’ lineages in reverse chronological
order. Starting with the oral histories of the individuals’ families,
and drawing on photographs, film clips, music, and early personal records,
Gates begins to trace their family trees back through the 20th century.
Noted historians and expert genealogists around America help fill in missing
branches. In the process, they explain how such major events as Jim Crow segregation
and the post-World War I “Great Migration” from the South to the
North helped shape African-American families.
Gates’ genealogical research gets increasingly difficult as he works
back through the Reconstruction, Civil War, Colonial, and early slave trade
periods in American history. When the genealogical road ends, he turns to
some of our leading scientists who are involved in cutting-edge work using
DNA samples to trace ancestral roots to Africa.
For some Americans, the essential question—”Where do I come from?”—cannot
be answered; their history has been lost or stolen. But through genealogical
research and ground-breaking DNA analysis, this book not only provides a transformational
discovery for several prominent African Americans, but also serves as an example
for all Americans of the empowerment derived from knowing their heritage.
In this moving, highly personal treasure hunt, Gates and his “guests”
are surprised, frequently delighted, and sometimes brought to tears as they
learn of their ancestors’ lives. Gates is surprised to discover a long-held
family story about their ancestry is not true. Jemison is also surprised when
she learns that a significant part of her ancestry is from a part of the globe
far from Africa, and Chris Tucker (through DNA testing) ends up on the western
coast of Africa, where his ancestors, who were sold into slavery, may have
lived.
The series has an accompanying website with plenty of helpful information
for individuals interested in tracing their ancestry. It even has lesson plans
for middle- and high-school teachers.
